<p>Good Job! Seems like you should be a good fit for everything…besides Ivy (ivies are always reaches)</p>
<p>@Astronboy- you scared me for a second 
</p>
<p>I guess my problem is, I don’t know how to find “academic research opportunities.” Or how to find events to organize for that matter. I see these types of ECs on lots of chances threads, so I know the opportunities are out there… but how I can find them? I have no idea… I went to a gigantic high school (1400 students in each graduating class) and I only talked to my guidance counselor once each year, and I feel like that was harmful because she was always too busy for me to ask her about these things. </p>
<p>My only hope for having a decent EC was getting into TASP, but I got rejected from them. I never was successful in science fair, and my school didn’t have any of the big competitions like the Chemistry Olympiad. I’ve been participating for 6 years in Quiz Bowl, but our school never had the money to send us to a national tournament even though we qualified every year. I did get 10th place nationally on the National French Exam, which was the highest anyone got at my school, but I feel like even that wouldn’t be the slightest bit impressive for admissions officers. </p>
<p>I don’t even have the work experience that lots of colleges want. My parents never let me get a job (during the school year) because they thought it would hurt my schoolwork, and summer jobs never worked out for various reasons.<br>
I did work for my money though, by waking up early each morning for years to compete in this contest ([Map</a> Quiz / Geography Quiz - Win Cash ($100) in Our Daily Geography Quiz - Worldatlas.com](<a href=“http://www.worldatlas.com/geoquiz/current.htm#.UeD9MT7jseU]Map”>http://www.worldatlas.com/geoquiz/current.htm#.UeD9MT7jseU)), and a few other online competitions. I made over 1000 dollars in the process (not a crazy amount of money, but it has been enough to fund music purchases/eating out/coffee/movies). The monetary reward of that contest was great, but I also kept doing it just because of how much I enjoyed learning about geography and I loved the challenge it gave me. Of course, there is no use reporting this type of thing to colleges because I doubt they would ever actually understand how much effort I put into it and what a great learning experience it was. (Basically it’s a daily quiz that is posted at 7:55 Central Time. It’s kind of like a scavenger hunt, with clues pointing you to a certain location in the world. The first person to enter the correct answer, usually within 5 minutes, wins 100 dollars. It was <em>very</em> tough to win and I had to persevere for months before I won my first time.) </p>
<p>In addition to this, I’ve spent lots of time online taking courses (so far I’ve done two computer science courses, calculus, and a logic course- and I plan to do a lot more this summer). Once again, there is really no way for me to prove this to colleges (either because the course was completely independent, like MIT OCW, or because I didn’t want to pay for the diploma at the end) and I don’t expect them to care about it, but I think this is another good example of how my love of learning can’t always be quantified.</p>
<p>Some thing I just remembered, but that I doubt counts for anything… I sent a letter-to-the-editor to a newspaper (it’s the newspaper of one of the ten largest cities in the US) and got published. I was very proud of this accomplishment since I was a 7th grader at the time and was published alongside adults. However, I have heard about lots of students who have there own columns and stuff so getting published once, even in a big newspaper, probably isn’t very impressive at all. </p>
<p>Finally there is my piano playing. I spent several hours each weekend rehearsing and performing with my church’s band. I did this for a year and a half, and it was a <em>huge</em> commitment that forced me to confront my stage fright, and also helped me fit in a bit better to my church. I frankly did not want to go to church to start with (I’m actually atheist and basically spent all my time sitting alone because I’m very shy and didn’t know anyone), but since my parents were making me go to church, I found a group that I connected with (the band), learned that they needed someone to play the piano, and found myself feeling more at home. It was a lot of hard work, but in the end, it was a great experience and was totally worth the effort. </p>
<p>All of these are fairly non-traditional ECs that I think will count for pretty much nothing in college admissions, mostly because I have no way of conveying them to colleges. I’m not saying that any of them are super impressive, but I still feel like they show a bit of depth that a list of the clubs I’ve been in and awards that I’ve gotten don’t show. </p>
<p>Anyway, rant over. Thanks for the replies so far!</p>
<p>Just put in everything you’ve got, including the geography. Every little thing counts, no matter how insignificant it may seem to you. Remember, when applying to colleges, you need to strongly assert that you’re a more qualified candidate than the fellow applicant. Basically, you need to ‘show off’. So just throw anything in. It mean the difference between getting accepted and rejected.</p>